The uninsured do not have access to most prescription drugs needed to prevent, cure or manage diseases. High prices of prescription drugs transform to genuine health problems as people go without needed medicine. Lack of insurance and access to needed prescription drugs could lead to serious health problems and financial difficulties. Most of the time, because the uninsured postpone health care, they wound up with more serious health conditions. For example, the uninsured are more likely to be diagnosed with later stages of breast, prostate, colorectal, and skin cancer than people with insurance (Silberman et.al, 2002).
The Keiser Family Foundation (2001) found that nationally, the uninsured are more than five times more likely to report needing care, but not receiving it, and almost two times more likely to report being unable to fill a prescription due to cost. Uninsured Americans struggle to pay for all of their health care. The number of non-elderly uninsured Americans grew to approximately 45 million in 2003, an increase of 1. 4 million from 2002 (U. S Census Bureau, 2003). Young adults (ages 19 to 34) accounted for 40% of the non-elderly, uninsured population in 2003 (Kaiser Medicaid Commission, 2004)
Prescription drugs are expensive for everyone and unaffordable for many, especially the uninsured. For people without insurance that covers drugs, prices are about 15 percent higher than for someone in a health plan (Searing, 2003). Twenty-seven percent of people without insurance have said they needed a prescription drug but did not get it (KFF, 2003). Anecdotal reports show that many patients on limited incomes respond to high prescription costs by cutting their medication dosage or simply not taking prescribed drugs (Steinman, 2001). In public opinion, pharmaceutical companies are the villains in this situation.
A recent survey by the Kaiser Health Poll (2005) found that one-half of adults have an unfavorable opinion of pharmaceutical companies with drug companies ranking ahead of oil and tobacco companies in favorability, but behind many other groups such as hospitals, airlines and banks. And while nine in Increasing prescription drug cost and how it affects the healthcare of millions of American’s daily Page #2 ten (91%) adults say that drug companies make an important contribution by researching and developing new drugs, beliefs about the motivation behind drug companies’ work are less positive.
Seven in ten (70%) agree that drug companies put profits ahead of people, while one-quarter (24%) agree that companies are more concerned with saving lives and improving quality of life than profits. Moreover, ratings of pharmaceutical companies’ customer service have been on a decline since 1997 when almost eight in ten (79%) people said drug companies generally do a “good job” serving consumers. In 2004, for first time, more people said drug companies generally do a “bad job” (48%) than a “good job” (44%) of serving consumers. Furthermore, the public views pharmaceutical companies as major contributors to rising health care costs.
In 2004, seven in ten (69%) adults say that high profits made by drug companies are a “very important” reason behind rising health care costs, and almost a quarter (24%) say drug company profits are the most important reason, ahead of malpractice lawsuits (20%) and greed and waste in the system (20%).
In another survey, an argument sometimes put forth by the pharmaceutical industry that prescription drugs decrease overall medical costs by reducing the need for other services does not resonate with the majority of adults: fewer than a quarter (23%) agree with this view, compared with six in ten (59%) who agree that prescription drugs increase overall medical costs (11% do not think prescription drugs affect the nation’s medical costs).
Most importantly, most of the public do not believe that research and development drive the cost of prescription drugs, instead three-quarters (74%) say drug company profit margins or marketing costs are the largest contributors to the price of prescription drugs and eight in ten (81%) say that drug costs are not justified because companies charge more for medications than necessary (KFF Health Poll, 2005).
Increasing prescription drug cost and how it affects the healthcare of millions of American’s daily Page #3 This shows that the rising costs of prescribed drugs could bring about an issue in the purchasing behavior of the general public. It is more likely that the uninsured would rather resolve to creative means to have access to cheaper medicines, the uninsured still is a major group of our society. In the end the federal government will have to find ways to answer the clamor of the uninsured.